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I was wondering how many pictures of orchards under the trees is dirt i was wondering how large orchards keep grass and weeds from building up from around the base.
I'm assuming they go thru and bush-hog or mow in the rows but i was just wondering how they keep under the trees from growing up?
Many of them use herbicides to kill off the grass.
My manual on pecan growing actually recommends herbicides over other methods. Mowing doesn't kill grass, so that leaves some kind of cultivation. Cultivation is not really good for pecan trees because of the shallow root system. Can't speak for other trees but suspect this applies as well. In fact though, I have trouble keeping up with the grass growing under my trees - more roundup needed. I've thought about trying some weed blocker cloth on a couple to try out. But that means holding it down with timbers or something else or I'll be untangling it from my mower blades.
I think farmers use a pre-emergent herbicide to get bare ground under orchards. The poison lays on the surface of the ground, and grasses, weeds, or whatever are killed as they start to sprout. These herbicides apparently don't kill established plants. I'm guessing the poison is sprayed low and directly on the ground. Personally, I cut the weeds with a mower/shredder, then spread out the mulch under the trees. I use a drip line on top of the mulch. The mulched weeds stop new weeds and help hold the water in. Cheaper than herbicides and I prefer fruit grown this way. Best of luck.
I'm open to trying this, and/or the weed cloth. I haven't had much luck with mulch in the past. Weeds seem to love mulch around here. Not so much growing through, but taking seed in. And one of my worst problems is bermuda grass. It seems to be able to survive anything and I think it would take root in a brick.
Do you come back and change mulch out, or just keep adding more to top? I'd expect tree roots to enter mulch layer, so I wouldn't want to disturb.
I can see doing small amount of trees but seems like for an acre or better of trees it'd get too costly.. all the orchard's around here use chemicals or let grass grow where they don't mow. I'm going to check out another apple orchard tomorrow or today and look around..thanks for all your options..
Mulch is good, but it doesn't work all that great here, either. The weeds still grow. But the idea is that you just keep adding more and more mulch to the pile and when it is deep enough the natural composting effect heats the weeds up enough that they don't make it.
But I'll caution you about the weed fabric. I tried that, and the weeds grew through it (and on top of it - when the wind stirred up dust it created a bit of a topsoil layer on top of the fabric) and it became a big, weed infested mess.
What was worse, is that mowing it becomes impossible (the stuff gets wound up in the blades - it even stopped my rotary cutter). Then for years later you'll find strips and chuncks of the weed fabric here and there.
Anyway, I know it works for some, but was a bad experience for me [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]...
The shredded weeds I mulch allow few weeds to grow & those are easy to pull. It could be the low humidity in California. The mulch isn't composted, so it's a lousy medium for growing weeds or tree roots. My trees were 2 years old B4 I started this, always deep watered, so I don't see roots near the surface. The mulch layer is about 4 inches deep. I plan to make it deeper and bigger next year as some weeds grow around the edges of the mulch. I rake it all up in late fall, compost it, and add it to the garden in the spring. I've about 25 trees, heading toward 50 next year so I get to try it with the new trees. I also drip irrigate. I've tried drip lines under the weeds and on top. I prefer dripping on top. Can't say that makes a difference but the water seems to go right through these weeds. Maybe we have different kinds of weeds? [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I don't have many broad or green leaf weeds. They're more like straw. I also use a mower/shredder and a landscape rake on a tractor. Those also cut down the labor. I mulch this way as it seems to be the least amount of work for me. I don't have to cut or mow the orchard, and water less frequently. This approach works for me but I'm guessing different soils, climate or weeds could give different results. Best of luck.
I used to work on a farm that had some christmas tree plantations. The standard practice was to mow and then spray with round-up and pre-emergent herbicides. It left the ground barren around the trees, which led to some erosion and water run-off.
We were planning to do some test plots with clover (or other legume) for a ground cover in the christmas tree plantations. The clover is relatively low growing. This would have helped to prevent erosion and may have had the added benefit of increasing the christmas tree growth rate due to the nitrogen fixating qualities of the legume.
I understand why the growers try to minimize competing vegetation with herbicides. But by killing all of the cover and leaving the ground barren, you also have greater run-off when it rains and less water retention. It would be interesting to see one of the AG colleges do a study and see if there is a happy medium with an appropriate cover crop. Mulching is a great alternative, but on a commercial scale I'm not sure where you'd find a cost effective mulch to cover 50 - 100 acre plantations.
Our orchard is not large (30 trees), but, FWIW, I've opted to use fairly deep cypress mulch in a four foot diameter circle around the fruit trees and low growing white (Dutch or New Zealand) clover between trees, on the hillside terraces and in the rows. I planted the clover seed fairly dense. Some weeds do come up....I just wait till they are about knee high and then pull them out. I figure if I stay after them I'll eventually get them down to a minimum (most of our weeds seem to grow from the small root pieces left in the ground after clearing)
In theory low growing clover will not require mowing, will help retain moisture, deter weeds and erosion, attract bees and beneficial insects as well as add nitrogen to the soil. It also looks nice.
I'm doing the same thing in all our perennial beds (artichokes, asparagus and upright berries, but not amongst strawberries)
I'll let you know if this works out in a few years. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
University of California at Davis has determined that grasses produce a chemical that retards the growth of trees. Perhaps that is the reason for spraying.
I looked at local orchards the other day the one that's local is on a good 30% slope or more with alot of grass growing and looks like it's not maintained verywell.
I like the idea of using clover for the ground cover, however, it doesn't really release much of that nitrogen unless it is plowed under or harrowed.